On the Attitude to Liquidationism and on Unity

Written:Written in December 1912Published:First published inBolshevikNo. 1, 1939.

      Published according to the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1975],

      Moscow,Volume 18,

      pages444-446.Translated:Stepan ApresyanTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

1.Fouryears’ struggle against liquidationism.

TheParty defined liquidationism inDecember1908.
Liquidationism condemned for destroying the Party, not for legal
work. Anti-liquidationism wins in the legal arena, 1912. (“Pravda”
andthe elections.)

2.Theliquidators caused a split. The liquidators broke away from the
Party. Their initiating groups are a product and manifestation of the
split.

3.TheAugust 1912 conference was anti-Party in composition, as even
the conciliators had to admit.

Itis impermissible for little groups abroad, having no direct mandate
from any Social-Democratic organisation in Russia, and not operating by
agreement with it, to act in the name of the Social-Democratic Party.

4.Theresolutions of the August conference on basic issues of the
movement, above all on the fundamental issue of recognition—complete and
sincere recognition—of the illegal Party, are, to put it as mildly as
possible, “diplomacy”, i.e., evasion of a straightforward answer to the
question. They are in effect liquidationist resolutions.

5.Thepolitical behaviour of the liquidationist group inNasha
ZaryaandLuchafter the (August) conference revealed the
absolutely anti-Party character of this group, which found expression
(a) in advocacy of an open Party;
(b) in scoffing at “underground” work in the legal press;
(c) in a struggle against revolutionary strikes and revolutionary mass
struggle in general.

Aresolute struggle must be waged against this group as anti-Party.

6.Theadvocacy of unity in the legal press—evading and obscuring the
essence of the matter, namely, the question ofrecognisingthe
illegal Partyin practice—isdeception of the workers.

7.Theunity of all trends and shades in the illegal organisation is
absolutely necessary. Appeal for such unity.